Norwegian vapers, however, will not give up without a fight. Yesterday, Kjell Marius Jenssen, head of board of NDS, wrote an article published on minervanett.no, exposing the governments real intentions and calling their bluff. On behalf of Norwegian vapers, he bites back... hard.

Google will probably translate the article well enough for you to see that it is a thorough walk through of the consequences, the undemocratic processes resulting in article 20 and finally a good summary of how NDS (and I think most Norwegian vapers will stand behind these views) view vaping and how it should be regulated.

Despite the fact thatthe government hasaccess toall the information aboveand know thate-cigarettes are good forpublic health, they choose to promotea proposedregulationwhicheffectivelyremoves an alternative that is minimum95 percentsafer thantobacco smoking. When this is evencommunicatedasa liberalization, one has to wonder ifthisis a sign ofincompetence, orif they actuallywant to givethe tobacco industrysuch a present.

But it gets better. Not long after Jenssen's article was published Dagbladet, one of Norway's biggest newspapers, picked up on the case and published an article with this headline: The government's e-cigarette proposal is a hoax. Now that's more like it. Jenssen's original article gets a link and some of the most important points are explained in a way most people can understand: The tobacco industry owned cigalikes that will be left on the market and the nicotine strength limit suggested will not make e-cigarettes a good alternative for smokers trying to quit. In the end, the tobacco industry will be the ones winning. This is also where Karl Erik Lund from SIRUS (The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research) comes in to support Jenssen's argumentation in an excellent way.

What the government seems to want with this is a stepin the right direction, and the intentiontolift the banisgood.Butto usethe EU'stobaccodirective as a template forregulation ofe-cigarettes wouldhavedisastrous consequencesforthose products thatluressmokersawayfromthe deadlycigarettes.

For the firsttime in history, we now haveharm-reducing nicotineproductswith the potentialtocompetewith-andpreferablyout-tobacco.But in order to do so thenicotinedosesneeds behighenoughandtastevariationsmust be allowed.The EUdirectivecauses theproduct range tonarrow, the products to becomemore expensive, the attractivenessis reducedandthe tobacco industry are leftas the winners.

Lund also continues to attack the process leading to the TPD, calling it a missed opportunity:

Thereis a broad agreementamong Europeantobaccoresearchersthat the tobaccoproductdirectiveevolved tobecome a "missed opportunity" fore-cigarettes. This is becauseneitherresearchers noruserswere included in thedecision-making process.

Finally he explains how cig-alikes are not very popular (cause they don't work very well) and refers to data from the UK showing that vaping is not picked up by non-smokers.

Jenssen gets to explain a bit about the Totally Wicked legal challenge and that NDS have suggested e-cigarettes should be regulated as consumer products with an age limit of 18 years, before the minister of health, Bent Høie, and general secretary of the Cancer Society, Anne Lise Ryel, gets to say they're happy with the suggestion. Høie says the proposal is an improvement to the current situation, that it will clear up some misunderstanding that e-cigarettes are risk free, but that there are health benefits for smokers switching to e-cigarettes. His statements doesn't make much sense if you've read the rest of the article.

Finally, I'd say, NDS and the Norwegian vaping community are getting some good, fair coverage in Norwegian media. This article in one of Norway's biggest newspaper is surely valuable to us. However, I do think it is a bit disappointing that I haven't seen any other media picking up on the case yet. NTB, a big Norwegian news agency is referenced in the article, so more media should have picked up on it in my opinion. Hopefully they're just a bit slow, and hopefully this can spark a real debate here in Norway, where vapers and vaping advocates voices are also heard. We've been left out in the cold for way to long already.

Norwegian vapers, however, will not give up without a fight. Yesterday, Kjell Marius Jenssen, head of board of NDS, wrote an article published on minervanett.no, exposing the governments real intentions and calling their bluff. On behalf of Norwegian vapers, he bites back... hard.

Google will probably translate the article well enough for you to see that it is a thorough walk through of the consequences, the undemocratic processes resulting in article 20 and finally a good summary of how NDS (and I think most Norwegian vapers will stand behind these views) view vaping and how it should be regulated.

Despite the fact thatthe government hasaccess toall the information aboveand know thate-cigarettes are good forpublic health, they choose to promotea proposedregulationwhicheffectivelyremoves an alternative that is minimum95 percentsafer thantobacco smoking. When this is evencommunicatedasa liberalization, one has to wonder ifthisis a sign ofincompetence, orif they actuallywant to givethe tobacco industrysuch a present.

But it gets better. Not long after Jenssen's article was published Dagbladet, one of Norway's biggest newspapers, picked up on the case and published an article with this headline: The government's e-cigarette proposal is a hoax. Now that's more like it. Jenssen's original article gets a link and some of the most important points are explained in a way most people can understand: The tobacco industry owned cigalikes that will be left on the market and the nicotine strength limit suggested will not make e-cigarettes a good alternative for smokers trying to quit. In the end, the tobacco industry will be the ones winning. This is also where Karl Erik Lund from SIRUS (The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research) comes in to support Jenssen's argumentation in an excellent way.

What the government seems to want with this is a stepin the right direction, and the intentiontolift the banisgood.Butto usethe EU'stobaccodirective as a template forregulation ofe-cigarettes wouldhavedisastrous consequencesforthose products thatluressmokersawayfromthe deadlycigarettes.

For the firsttime in history, we now haveharm-reducing nicotineproductswith the potentialtocompetewith-andpreferablyout-tobacco.But in order to do so thenicotinedosesneeds behighenoughandtastevariationsmust be allowed.The EUdirectivecauses theproduct range tonarrow, the products to becomemore expensive, the attractivenessis reducedandthe tobacco industry are leftas the winners.

Lund also continues to attack the process leading to the TPD, calling it a missed opportunity:

Thereis a broad agreementamong Europeantobaccoresearchersthat the tobaccoproductdirectiveevolved tobecome a "missed opportunity" fore-cigarettes. This is becauseneitherresearchers noruserswere included in thedecision-making process.

Finally he explains how cig-alikes are not very popular (cause they don't work very well) and refers to data from the UK showing that vaping is not picked up by non-smokers.

Jenssen gets to explain a bit about the Totally Wicked legal challenge and that NDS have suggested e-cigarettes should be regulated as consumer products with an age limit of 18 years, before the minister of health, Bent Høie, and general secretary of the Cancer Society, Anne Lise Ryel, gets to say they're happy with the suggestion. Høie says the proposal is an improvement to the current situation, that it will clear up some misunderstanding that e-cigarettes are risk free, but that there are health benefits for smokers switching to e-cigarettes. His statements doesn't make much sense if you've read the rest of the article.

Finally, I'd say, NDS and the Norwegian vaping community are getting some good, fair coverage in Norwegian media. This article in one of Norway's biggest newspaper is surely valuable to us. However, I do think it is a bit disappointing that I haven't seen any other media picking up on the case yet. NTB, a big Norwegian news agency is referenced in the article, so more media should have picked up on it in my opinion. Hopefully they're just a bit slow, and hopefully this can spark a real debate here in Norway, where vapers and vaping advocates voices are also heard. We've been left out in the cold for way to long already.